


Twist of fate

by SugarRum



Category: Aladdin (1992), Aladdin (2019)
Genre: A whole lot of angst because i live on it, Agrabah is a progressive sultanate in this story, F/M, In later chapters - Freeform, Modern Setting, Please Send Help!, Rating May Change in case i decide to add some smut, Sad memories from the past, So I wrote this instead of sleeping, Tropes Everywhere, angsty rom-com, enemies to friend to lovers, for a twist of fate archeologist Jasmine finds the lamp, he is the only one not reincarnated, irregular updates due to real life, jafar is been locked in the cave of wonders for too much time, maybe even a dash of fluff, the reincarnation au no one asked for, the trashy telenovela i wanted to read, there will be smut, this ship is consuming me, who am I kidding
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-01
Updated: 2019-07-07
Packaged: 2020-05-31 12:56:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,131
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19426444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SugarRum/pseuds/SugarRum
Summary: “Jafar.”“What did you just said?”“Your name, isn’t it?”“I don’t know, I can’t remember it.”“I can assure you this is your name, Jafar. I knew you. You were once my worst nightmare.”





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry for my english, I'm practicing, have mercy :)  
> From the moment these two appeared together on the big screen i was sure something was going on between them, even now i can't shake that feeling. I adore jasmine and aladdin but she paired with jafar is something more. Please tell me I am not the only one seeing things or shipping these two!  
> I hope you enjoy this first chapter and if so let me know.

There was a time when the cave of wonders was just a bedtime story for her, a fantasy where to lost herself in when reality became too cruel, too demanding. There was a time when its magnificent treasures poured from her mother’s rich lips like a stream of gold and gems. There was a time when she started to think that maybe the cave was more than just a fantasy, more than just a childhood dream.  
In fact, that was the time when she found out that every story had a bottom of truth.  
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

She left Agrabah that same morning, leaving the coastal city behind, headed to the rocky massif north of the city where, according to the ancient sources, the cave was located. She studied for at least two years the probable site, searching ancient texts for even a single sentence about the fabulous cave or its treasures. Her colleagues didn’t believe her, and the university of Agrabah didn’t fund her research, treating her almost like a loony. But at least they had made their labs available.  
She was ready to fail, to admit her mistake, but not without even trying! She wanted to prove them wrong!  
She rented a jeep for the day, a more suitable transport apt to surf the golden dunes. She followed the main road advancing into the desert for more than an hour, passing small villages and caravan of camels, and when the rocky massif finally came in her view, she left the straight road for the curvy dunes.  
The sun at the zenith was unbearable and the white scarf around her head was useless against the heat. The golden scarab beetle was scorching hot against her breastbone. She usually never wore jewels during her excavation campaigns but that morning the necklace had found its way around her neck as of magic. She didn’t even remember wearing it! But here she was, in the middle of nowhere, searching for a myth with an inestimable heirloom hanging under her shirt.  
She arranged her equipment under a makeshift tent, grabbed her camera and started searching for the entrance. The sources described it as an enormous leonine head but from what she could see there was nothing of the sort around there, nothing engraved in the rock or remotely human made. The camera’s strap was starting to make her sweat on the nape of her neck and when she removed it the hook of her necklace opened and the golden scarab fell from her throat. It rolled down a little dune, moving on its own. She ran after it, her feet sinking deep in the sand, making her lose her balance and fall face-first. When she was done spitting mouthfuls of sand, she recovered her camera and watching through the lens she spotted the necklace at the foot of a big rock, split in two. Her grandma would've been so furious with her! She destroyed something that was in her family since the beginning of times! She retrieved the pieces of the scarab and while trying in vain to fix it, a chasm opened under her feet and she was swallowed by the desert sands.  
In her last lucid moment she hoped she turned on the gps on her cellphone.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-  
When she regained her senses she was welcomed by the dark and the smell of humidity. She was able to hear her breathing echoing around her. She was in a big place, a place strangely too cold for the desert. It was a miracle she was alive and unharmed after that free fall. She reached for one of the many pockets of her cargo pants and picked a little flashlight. When the light flicked on she remained motionless. What stood before her was something beyond her imagination, something she believed in her entire life. Mountains of golden coins, crates overflowing with jewels, shiny gems and precious thing she couldn’t even name. She was so astonished, so shocked that silently tears begun to stream down her cheeks. She was so amazed she didn’t even think to take a picture. She stood up on wobbly legs and began to roam the sea of riches, without breathing, too afraid to break that sort of magic covering everything. She was, most probably, the first person to set foot in the cave after who knows how many centuries.  
The light of the flashlight reflected on something metallic, blinding her for a fraction of seconds. Her attention fell on the object and something inside her made a flip. It was a plain oil lamp, nothing rare or noteworthy: the simplest thing to find in a treasure or in a tomb. But there was something drawing her to that old piece of brass covered in dust and dirt. That place was overflowing with jewels and any kind of riches and nonetheless she was mesmerized by that lamp.  
_Rub the lamp and make a wish_ , she heard her mother’s voice whisper. It was a game they played often when she was a little girl, but there was no lamp. The magic object of her memories was just an old silver teapot. _Rub the lamp and the genie will appear to grant you your every wish, Jasmine_. Usually her childish wishes revolved around cakes and toys, and were usually always granted. _Anything for my little princess._ She let out a shaky breath.  
“I found it, mom.” She whispered in the silence of the cave with a lump in her throat.  
She was tempted to take it and rub it but she restrained herself from doing something so silly. Instead she began to retrieve various objects, a handful of coins, a necklace with a sapphire, a ruby the size of the palm of her hand and at the end she grabbed the lamp and shoved it on the bottom of her shoulder bag. _It’s for science purpose_ , she said trying to convince herself. The museum’s deposits were full of archeological finds like that lamp. _One more can’t hurt no one._  
When she was done, a thought occurs to her: she was trapped inside the cave of wonders without a way out.  
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

When she crawled back in the open air, through a hole in the rocks, the sun was setting and the temperature was falling: soon she would’ve been shaking for the cold. She was thirsty, breathless and so tired that she weighed up the chance to spend the night there in the middle of the desert. But she got a grip of herself and went back to her car, dragging her feet. The bag and her camera weighted a ton on her shoulder. She was still in a haze, like she was waking up from a dream but as quickly as possible she picked her things up, loaded the jeep and took the road for Agrabah.  
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

When she arrived at the labs, the campus was already half empty and was shutting down. The rooms, always buzzing with people and activities, were eerily quiet. The only sounds came from her shoulder bag: the clank of the coins against the lamp filled the dim lit corridors.  
It was strange, even Jamal and Yusuf, always the last two to go home, were nowhere to be seen. She looked at the screen of her smartphone to check the time and cursed under her breath. 23 missed calls from both Nasim and Alì. 78 messages on the lab’s group chat and even two emails from her thesis supervisor. She was so screwed.  
In that same moment, while brooding over her poor life choices, the screen in her hand lit up and Nasim’s bright smile appeared. She took a deep breath and answered.  
“Where the hell are you? The exhibition is about to begin and you are not here yet.”  
“Shit…I’m so sorry. I lost track of time, I have so much to tell you.”  
“You better show your sorry ass here in a minute or professor Mahafuz is going to freak out. You were supposed to have the opening speech ten minutes ago.”  
“I’m…” she stuttered, one hand rubbing her eyes. She was never unreliable but now she was letting down her professor and her colleagues.  
“Jas, is everything okay?”  
She can hear all the chatting in the conference room. They were waiting for her. And she was still covered in dirt and sweat. They would forgive her once she told them what she found. She was sure of it.  
“Buy me time, please. Entertain them with some jokes and reassure Mahafuz. Take my place if you have to, you know the entire speech by heart by now, you know everything about Shirabad’s ruins. I’m really sorry, I’ll be there as soon as possible.”  
“You own me big this time. I can buy you only half an hour. I’ll have to pull out my best repertoire.” She can almost see her friend snap her fingers. “You are lucky the chancellor is not here yet: the One and a Thousand Nights play stole our scene tonight. But he will be here soon, hurry up!” her friend hung up.  
She took a long breath and put her bag on a nearby table. She emptied it and the lamp tumbled out and fell on the ground with a loud clang. She stood there, looking at it for a moment too long. She kneeled down and pick it up. Out of habit she dusted it, polishing the belly. She was spellbound to that thing.  
Her phone buzzed again and she was so surprised by the sound, ringing loud in the silence, that she dropped the lamp again and pick the phone. A message was flashing on the screen. _R u coming?_  
When she raised her head she almost had a heart attack. “What the…” one of her hands ran to her chest to calm the furious beating of her heart.  
There was a man standing there, with his arms crossed against his chest and a disgusted expression on his face as he watched her. He wore nothing more than a vest and his forearms were covered with heavy bracelets.  
“What my master commands?”  
“What? Who are you? Why are you here?” she blinked out of her reverie.  
“I’m here to grant you three wishes, master.” The man seemed annoyed.  
“I think you lost your way, sir. The One and a Thousand Nights play is in the theatre , on the other side of the campus. Cool stage costume, by the way, so real looking. How do you hide your legs? Is there some fog machine inside your pants?” she noticed that the man’s legs were hidden behind a curtain of dense mist. _I’m going crazy._  
“I’m the genie of that lamp.” He nodded toward the lamp still on the ground.  
“Is this some kind of joke? It’s not funny. I don’t have time for this. Please, go away.”  
“I can’t. I’m bound to you, master.” His face was a hard mask of indifference.  
“I’m going to call the campus security if you don’t leave right away.” She pointed to the door.  
The man was unmoving. His chest was barely rising and falling with his breath. That disturbing fog was the only thing shifting like a sentient being. A smoky tendril moved towards her and the man tilted his head, scrutinizing her.  
A moment passed, and then another and another more.  
And then she took a step forward, “Did I stutter? Get lost!” she hissed through clenched teeth.  
He shoot her a lopsided grin and then vanished like that, in a puff of red smoke.  
She released that breath she didn’t even know she was holding. _What just happened?_  
She had been too much under the sun, she had probably a heatstroke and that man was just a product of her tired and overexcited mind. Even though, she glanced at the lamp on the ground and pick it up with caution and put it on the table.  
With another glance at it she took her things and left. They were waiting for her. She had to hurry.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello!! Welcome back and thank you to everyone who left kudos  
> Hope you like this new chapter and please, please, please let me know! I’m sorry for my broken English and for any mistakes. I already know I suck with verbs, but at least I’m trying :)  
> I’m also trying to write a decent plot, I know I said in the tags that this ff is a trashy one but I can’t, for the love of God, write something trashy. I’m a perfectionist! By the way this will be a slow burn-angsty type of fic, so if you want to know how it ends you have to stay with me.  
> Till next time ;)

She had a problem. It was 2 am in the morning and she was twisting and turning in her bed. She could hear Nasim snore lightly in her room across the hallway. She would give a kidney to be able to sleep for more than twenty minutes without interruption: it had been days since she had a goodtime sleep. Since she had found the Cave, her nights had been studded with recurring dreams or more like… recurring nightmares. It was always the same dream: she was in a pit full of snakes, her feet covered by the slithering bodies. From the shapeless mass of tangled reptiles a cobra got up, swinging its slim body to the beat of distant drums. Its golden eyes too expressive to belong to an animal. She was so captivated by its sinuous swaying that she remained motionless and just as she begun to feel at ease with the closeness of the animal, the cobra strike with bared fangs and a disturbing hiss. Then the dream changed, images shifting and remolding, and she was surrounded by a blinding light, a thunderous rumbling shook the earth beneath her feet and all of a sudden the burning sands of the desert were closing on her head, suffocating her. She screamed at the top of her lungs but no sound left her lips, she was speechless. And at that point of the nightmare she always woke up, with labored breath and shaking hands.

That night was no different. Maybe she should speak with a doctor and take some pills to just relax. Nasim wanted to convince her to use some New Age thing with crystals and incense and maybe, if the pills don't work out, she could give in. Everything for an entire night of sleep. She got out of bed, her bare feet in contact with the cool floor gave her a bit of lucidity. She headed for the kitchen of the small apartment she had been sharing with Nasim for three years, trying not to make too much noise. Her friend was a light sleeper and was not very kind when she was woken up in the middle of the night. The moonlight filtered through the drawn curtains, making the living room a magical place suspended in time. A ray of moonlight was reflecting on the belly of the lamp that she had positioned in plain sight on the tea table as a paperweight. She had not told Nasim where she had found it, nor had she told anyone about her discovery. The day after the presentation she had hidden the treasures she had brought with her and for an inexplicable reason she had decided to take the lamp home and, since relegating it to be an ornament, she had barely touched it. The memory of the man who said he was the genie of the lamp was still too fresh in her mind to decide to forget. She had agreed with herself that it had been a vivid hallucination due to the strong emotions of that day, but the more she thought of it the more, though impossible and unlikely, it seemed true. She could still feel the tickling caused by the tendril of smoke that had grazed her. She couldn't have imagined it from scratch!

She opened the fridge, took a drink and sat on the sofa, facing the lamp. She pressed the ice water bottle first on her forehead and then on her neck to ward off the heat of the night. She pulled back her hair plastered with sweat and gathered them into a high ponytail. The still air, the unbearable heat and the deprivation of sleep would soon drive her crazy. She stopped again to look at the lamp, that dull object that had haunted her thoughts for days. Her most rational part told her that there was nothing to fear, it was just a piece of brass blackened by smoke and time. But there was another small part inside her, a totally irrational part, who screamed at her to stay away from it and she couldn’t fathom why. She took courage and decided to listen to rationality. She took the lamp and carefully turned it over in her hands, observing the refined decorations: subtle weaves of what looked like snakes and an inscription, in ancient Arabic, adorned its neck. She couldn’t translate it, but the Department of Ancient Languages could certainly do it. Most likely it was a phrase about light, or something like that, or the name of the owner. Perhaps it was just an amulet, a propitiatory object placed in some tomb and then stolen and hidden in the cave. She couldn't have known.

She ran a finger over the inscription, tracing each curve and every corner of that elegant writing with her fingertip. She was enchanted. She continued along the curve of the beak of the lamp, from where once a flame would have come out and the breath caught in her throat. A thin, pale tongue of smoke made its way from the lamp, which grew larger and redder every moment. She still believed she was dreaming when in a flurry of sparks and smoke the man who had appeared to her a few nights earlier, materialized in the middle of the living room. She clasped her hands around the lamp, until her knuckles whitened and the inscriptions of the lamp were imprinted on the palm of her hand. Her eyes, so wide open, could’ve fallen out of her sockets. The man, or genius, or hallucination or whatever it was, was still and staring at her, and she couldn't make a sound: she thought of screaming, to wake Nasim, but her tongue had stuck to her palate and she couldn't even swallow.

She stood up, caught in a sudden rush of adrenaline, and threw the lamp at the man, hoping she was dreaming. If the man had been true, he would have avoided the lamp, but if he was only a projection, the lamp would have passed through him. And against all odds, the man grabbed the lamp and gave her a questioning look, raising an eyebrow. With a quick gesture of his hands the lamp disappeared and reappeared in her trembling hands.

She fell back on the sofa, bewildered, without ever looking away from that strange and impossible man. "Y-you are true?" she asked under her breath.

"Like the sun and the moon, master."

"And you came out of ... from the lamp." she continued, feeling really crazy in saying those words. "And are you a genie?"

"Yes." The man was unperturbed. He kept looking at her carefully, with those strange dark gold-rimmed eyes.

"Did I die, by any chance?" That was the last plausible explanation she had to give herself. Perhaps she had died after that fall in the cave and the last days she had lived had been only a kind of limbo.

"Your heart beats so hard that I could hear it from the other end of Agrabah, so I don't think so."

She picked up the bottle of water left on the table and threw it at him. The man diverted it with one hand and the bottle fell to the floor.

"Throwing things at me won't make me disappear. I'm here to fulfill three wishes and I won't be able to leave until I’ve done it. So, if we could hurry I would be very grateful, master." His voice deepening on that last word, with a scornful tone.

"I don’t believe you. You could just be a crazy megalomaniac. What you pull before was just some Copperfield trick. Any magician with some experience would know how to do it." She challenged him, trying to rationalize what was happening to her. But there was nothing rational about a man, with legs made of smoke, hanging around her living room!

"Magician? I'm the most powerful being in the universe and I don't have to prove my worth to an insipid frightened little girl."

"Little girl? Where did the _‘yes, master’_ go? ” She rose from the sofa, in a vain attempt to calm herself and to show the man standing in front of her that she was not as frightened as he believed. Everything around her began to shake and an instant later every object in the room, including her, was floating a foot or so from the floor. She put her hand to her mouth to keep from screaming and looked at the smug smile spreading on the genie’s lips, he was pleased by her reaction. She pinched her cheek hard, trying to wake up from that nightmare.

"You're not dreaming, you foolish woman." She saw him roll his eyes, bored. Jasmine resented that offense. If she would've been a man he would’ve continued to call her his master but being her a woman he felt entitled to jeer her. She had to deal with a misogynist genius.

"I believe you. Put me down.” And as soon as those words crossed her lips, her feet touched earth again. And so everything that was in the living room. A deafening noise rose from each object returned to its place and Jasmine heard Nasim exclaim something in the other room.

"Get back in the lamp." If she wasn't really dreaming she didn't see why she couldn't treat him the way she wanted, since he was under her command.

"Make a wish and I will leave." He pressed her, approaching her threateningly.

"No." She kept his gaze, without wavering.

"Make your three stupid whishes and I will be able to pass to another master." He hissed an inch from her face.

"I wish for nothing."

"We’ll see. I will hunt you till you wish for me to disappear."

"I dare you." She cursed herself as soon as those words left her mouth. _What the hell, Jas? Are you for real? Are you actually daring a superior being?_ Her inner voice reprimanded her.

The man's lips tightened into a thin line and his nostrils flared. His hot breath was like a slap on her face. The staring contest stopped when the door to Nasim's room opened and at the same moment the genie disappeared into the lamp, leaving no trace.

She looked around for something out of place, and although the entire living room was levitating just minutes before, everything was in order. She heard the approaching footsteps of her roommate in the corridor. Nasim came out, her long dark hair disheveled and her eyes half closed with sleep. "What was that noise?"

_The genie of the lamp has just made me and the living room float, and as if it wasn't enough I challenged him to make me go insane._ It would have been so easy to tell the truth. But as much as her friend loved her, she would certainly have called someone to take her away with a straitjacket.

"What are you talking about?"

"What am I talking about? Of that infernal noise a little while ago.” Nasim looked around and her eyes fell on the bottle still on the floor. "And this?"

"It fell out of my hand, I crashed into the tea table. Maybe this was the noise you heard."

"No, I know what sound a bottle of water makes when it falls to the ground and it's not the noise I heard." She went on investigating, throwing the bottle at her. Jasmine grabbed it with one hand and squeezed it tightly.

"You must have dreamed it. I didn't hear anything." she said, hoping to drop the conversation.

"Mmh ..." her friend seemed to think about it and in the end, shrugging, she headed for the kitchen. Jasmine breathed a sigh of relief. "Still can't sleep?" Nasim asked, her head stuck deep in the fridge.

"Yeah, I think it’s the stress." She answered and in the meantime grabbed the lamp from the sofa, where she had dropped it once she came back with her feet on the ground, and hid it in a drawer. She couldn't risk Nasim finding it and touching it, it would have been too dangerous.

"Alì does not give you respite? I can handle him.” her friend sat on the sofa with a bowl of ice cream in her hands.

"What? No, he's sweet. Maybe this thing we have is the only thing that keeps me sane right now." Jasmine sat down next to her and gladly accepted the spoon that her friend handed her and sank it into the ice cream. "I think I will buy some sleeping pills and I will pray Allah to bless me with a good sleep."

"You sure? We could always try New Age medicine."

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading until the end!  
> let me know if you spotted any mistakes.  
> till next time ;)


End file.
